Wednesday, February 12, four serving federal ministers were forced to resign in Nigeria — Stella Oduah, Minister of aviation; Godsday Orubebe, Minister of the Niger Delta; Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Police Affairs; and Dr. Yerima Ngama, Minister of State for Finance. This is the second time within  six months that ministers will be leaving the cabinet — and Nigeria is not the only African country affected by incessant sacking of ministers.

Ministry Sacks a Trend Across Africa

Last December, the president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, also fired the country’s Defense Minister, Shamsi Vuai Nahodha; Interior Minister, Emmanuel Nchimbi; Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki; and David Matayo, the country’s Lifestock and Fisheries minister. They were fired for the abuse perpetrated by the nation’s security forces during a drive which aimed to stop poaching activities in the country.

Similar cases have been reported in the Central African Republic (CAR) where three ministers were fired following an inter-religious violence in December — and in South Sudan, where the nation’s minister for environment, Abdallah Deng Nhial, was fired without an official explanation.

Temporary and Ultimate Consequences of Hire-and-Fire Practices

While change is good and highly recommended, too much change is deleterious to national stability — especially when the motivation for shake up in the administration was political. According to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the ministers were asked to leave the administration in order to pursue individual political ambitions.

Even though temporary replacements had since been announced, the shake up will definitely affect operations at the respective ministries, the aviation ministry is a good example of such. It is currently carrying out airport facility upgrades nationwide with several other laudable visionary plans proposed. With the minister gone, ongoing projects may be altered, faulted or abandoned.

Almost every elected public official and political appointee in Nigeria and many other parts of Africa sees his or predecessor as having done the wrong thing and would now begin a rebuilding process, which often starts with pulling what the immediate past occupant of such position had done. For instance, if the new aviation minister is not in good terms with the former, a new appointee would cancel ongoing projects and re-award the constructions projects.

Policies may be redrawn, staff reassigned and plans redeveloped. This is one of the reasons why Nigeria and other similar African countries, with at will hire-and-fire practices, are not achieving much.